Z1
“Wind-down: Z1 has been absorbed by NG.CASH and no longer operates as an independent GenZ neobank in Brazil.”
Founded2019
HQSão Paulo, Brazil
FoundersJoão Pedro Thompson, Thiago Achatz, Mateus Craveiro, Sophie Secaf
Total raised$26.2M
Latest roundVenture Round, 2023
IndustryFintech / Neobank
The story
Founded 2019 as a GenZ neobank for Brazilian teens (a Step/Greenlight analog for LatAm), Z1 built a digital account + prepaid card operated under its own Brazilian payment-institution licence (Z1 Instituição de Pagamento Ltda.). After four years of growth backed by Kaszek, Homebrew and The Chainsmokers' Mantis, the company merged into NG.CASH — the larger GenZ digital account in LatAm — and migrated its user base rather than continue as a standalone brand. The z1.app site now redirects users to onboard on NG.CASH.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
2019
Founded in São Paulo as a digital bank for Brazilian/LatAm teenagers and young adults· banking
2020
Maya Capital led $700K seed round· banking
2021
Participated in Y Combinator W21 batch· banking
2021
$2.5M seed led by Homebrew, followed by $10M Series A led by Kaszek· banking
2023
$11M venture round· banking
2024
Merged into NG.CASH — Z1 accounts migrated to NG.CASH platform· acquisition
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Z1
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
4 layers disclosed in Z1’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Z1 Instituição de Pagamento (self-operated)Pix / Open Finance (self-operated)
Money movement
in the full report
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
3 more providers across 3 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.